Why should you hire the coach?
Recreational players is the biggest group of tennis participants in the world. All the courts are full of players who want to spend free time after work or school on playing this beautiful sport. Recreational game with partner is a great way to have fun, stay active and play sport without additional costs. However should you consider hiring the private coach? Let’s see.
The costs of playing tennis can vary a lot according to different factors. Recreational players will spend less money on traveling and coaching than professional players. Players who live in the sunny countries with no indoor season will pay less for the court’s rental than players who have to pay extra during winter season. In some countries you have public courts where you can play as much as you want without any costs but there are other countries where there are only private clubs where owners dictate the prices and treat tennis facility as a great source of income. Overall we can’t say that tennis is expensive or not because it depends on where we live, at which level we play, what our goals are and with what sport we want to compare the costs.
Coaching. That’s part of every sport. There are thousands of coaches who give lessons to different types of players. Of course hiring the coach means spending more money on your tennis but long-term it can bring you many benefits both in your athletic and personal life. Even if you are just a recreational player who comes to the court once per week it doesn’t mean that you won’t benefit of working with professional coach. Good coach understands individual situation and provides tools and knowledge that won’t make you regret this decision to cooperate.
Your goal can be to win the tournament or to improve your skills. You can play tennis because you want to stay active or you want to spend fun time in athletic environment. Tennis can be your way to deal with stress or to meet new people. There are different reasons why you hit the yellow ball with smile on your face but coach can help you to achieve your tasks faster and healthier. Below you can find my recommendations why you should spend a little bit more money and trust the professional:
Expand your game
It is not only about improving your strokes. It is not only about making smarter decisions. Tennis is a complex game that consists of many aspects and coaches are passionate with learning and understanding new areas that will help them teach more effectively. If you work with the coach you can grab various knowledge and work on the aspects that you have never touched. Coaches look at every player from the individual perspective so you can be sure that coach will listen to you and prepare plan that will suit your personal and athletic needs.
Make it long-term
I don’t know too many players who think about participating in tennis just for short time. All players treat tennis as a journey they want to participate in for many years so hiring the coach is a good addition to make this journey more comfortable and effective. Players tend to focus just on given day and all they want to see are good results here and now. Coach’s job is to show you your abilities in years ahead and analyze your performance to make necessary adjustments in different areas of development.
Stay healthy
The biggest risk in recreational game is related to injuries. Amateurs have low-quality technique that is assessed just on ability to play the ball into the court. Unfortunately this approach leads to many health problems down the road and there is a possibility that major injury will cause necessity to stop playing tennis forever. Good tennis coach will definitely pay attention to your technique and will introduce you to proper physical workouts as well as effective technical motions to make you continuously progress and minimize the possibility to start feeling pain.
Have no doubts
Tennis as an individual sport is really demanding from the psychological perspective. Players have to deal with many obstacles and challenges and especially recreational players who play only with their partners are left alone with doubts in head. By hiring the coach you can use the time to ask questions and find solutions to different areas that cause you to underperform. From inability to deal with stress during competition to having problems with hitting 2-handed backhand in down the line direction coach will give you clear tips that you can incorporate into your actions to see visible progress even after just few lessons.
In tennis as in any other area of life – if you want to improve you have invest in yourself. In my opinion coach can only make you better so it shouldn’t be the question „Should I hire…” but rather you should ask „How many times per week should I hire…”. If you really care about your body, mind, performance and scores – don’t hesitate. Find good coach and experience the difference.